The rough earth track is beginning to make itself felt, and the Gravity As­sisted Mountain Biking team makes a stop to instruct us on how to proceed from here. The road from La Cumbre had been tarmac, but now turns into a different experience: “stones, mud, curves and the odd bus are what you can expect to encounter”, explained our guides. Five years ago a new tar­mac road was built to Coroico, and since then the vast majority of private and public vehicles choose that road rather than risk the Death Road. Still precarious, the old road now serves as a beautiful and spectacular bicycle path. Our group of twelve customer cyclists and two guides begins to move along the dry earth, and the green foliage thickens as we drop down into ever more luxuriant vegetation. On the left, a panoramic view stretches out: mountain beyond mountain in dark-green hues, the ho­rizon seems to herald our approach to paradise.

The track is wider than I thought, I feel like its name belies what I am experiencing. Then I am reminded of the very real danger as my eyes dart to the left to see drops of many hundreds of meters with no safety barrier whizz past my eyes. I quickly bring my eyes back to the road, nar­row perhaps for cars, atop a good quality mountain bike with excellent brakes this road need not be more dangerous than any other mountain-biking terrain, and it is a descent you will never forget for the rest of your life. As we continue to advance on our journey the adrenaline begins to abate and gives way to other feel­ings altogether: a sense of freedom and power fill my spirit as I thunder along the famous death road.

In less than half an hour we have passed from an icy temperature of about zero degrees, to a sweaty tra­jectory on which we pant eagerly for the next stop: our opportunity to rip off another stuffy item of clothing and feel briefly cooled. It’s so satisfying, and makes me proud to be in Bolivia, a country of so many natural wonders and dizzying landscapes. And back to pedalling, I tell myself: the road forces me to focus as we approach a small uphill slope, and I strain, sweat­ing more heavily. No distractions are permitted on this arresting adventure.

Stay tuned for the next stop at Senda Verde.

In La Paz the fiesta never stops: paceños never miss an opportuni­ty for a celebration and they know how to party hard. Rarely a day goes by when one of the city’s streets isn’t closed to host a festival or the Plaza del Estudiante isn’t filled with University students per­forming a dance for the crowd. It is cultured to say the least, and has a busy annual schedule of differ­ent artistic events, one of the most important of these being El Gran Poder.
Characterised by elaborately decorated costumes and an im­pressive parade of various dance groups, El Gran Poder is one of the most important traditional and religious celebrations in La Paz. The rituals performed annually at the festival offer a glimpse of both the traditional Andina cultures as well as those of the Catholic religion. It celebrates the work of different folkloric and dance groups from around Bolivia and is unique to, and celebrated by, the entire city.

El Gran Poder, literally “The Great Power”, is more formally known as La Festividad de Nuestro Señor Jesús del Gran Poder. As is ap­parent from its name, this festival focuses on the dedication by the participants to Christ as the second ‘person’ in the Holy Trinity, based on a painting of the Trin­ity held in the Templo de la Calle Antonio Gallardo. “We dance for the Catholic Church, for the Saints and we also dance for the Pachamama,” explained Eddie Sabala, a long-time dancer in the event and follower of the Catho­lic faith.

El Gran Poder also focuses on thanksgiving to the Pachamama, a fundamental figure of worship for Andina people. Each year on the Saturday preceding the Feast of the Holy Trinity, thousands of paceños gather on the streets to eagerly participate in the festivi­ties that are unique to the cer­emony.

El Gran Poder has been cel­ebrated annually in La Paz since the year 1939, when it began as a small-scale celebration focused around a candlelit procession. Over the following years local embroiderers introduced different folk aspects to the festival and these days it is so extensive that arrangements begin months prior to the day. When asked about length of time necessary to pre­pare his dance routine, Sabala commented that he is involved in dance practises for almost the entire year.

The importance of the day for paceños is clearly demonstrated in the preparations undertaken and the willingness of many par­ticipants to invest much of their earnings in masks and decorative costumes which can sometimes cost in the hundreds of dollars. The parade begins in the morning with the celebrations reaching their height by the early evening, eventually concluding around midnight. The event involves a diverse exhibition of dances led by the image of Christ as well as performances by brass bands, all of whom are dressed extrava­gantly in different costumes and masks.

There are a number of traditional Bolivian dances featured in El Gran Poder, each representing a different group and each with a particular meaning. Essential to the festival is the Morenada dance, which exposes the abuse of the black slaves and the inhumane treatment they experienced in the mines and vineyards. Some of the more well-known dances include the Diablada, a dance represent­ing the fight between good and bad, and the victory against the seven sins, and the Incas, choreo­graphed to celebrate the impor­tance of the Incan Empire in the years before the invasion by the Spanish.

For many dancers, El Gran Poder is an opportunity to enjoy performing and to entertain the crowd. How­ever there are still many individuals who believe that by dancing in El Gran Poder they are devoting themselves to the image of Christ, and in return for their effort, are ask­ing for salvation, forgiveness, good health and fortune. Walking the length of Calle lllampu and admiring the parade as it ad­vances alongside me, one of the things I notice that is most attrac­tive about this festival is its power to unify the many groups of La Paz. Rich or poor, white or mestizo, Aymara or Catholic, cultural bounda­ries are forgotten as the partici­pants endeavour to celebrate as one people. When questioned as to whether Sabala believes El Gran Poder is a unifying celebration, he nodded and went on to say ""It unifies not only the cultures but also the classes within Bolivia, such as the upper and lower classes"".

Before visiting the festival for the first time I had imagined the sort of costumes that would be on show in the parade. However after actually attending the event I was taken by surprise at the level of creativity that each costume possessed.

Unfortunately, while the costumes exhibit a great beauty, they are also the focus of some criticism, as some believe the festival has forgotten it's religious origins and is becoming more com­mercialised. Some pacenos are beginning to complain that the costumes are now mere rep­resentations of the individual's wealth and prestige. In contrast to Sabala's idealistic vision of a festival in which boundaries between classes evaporates, this paints a picture of an event that can be used to enhance class divisions. Marisol Medina, a pacena who has attended the festival for many years believes ""Religion isn't as important any­more, now the most important part is the ostentation of the costumes...the dancers use jew­els made from gold and display them on their arms, hands and ears and expensive clothes. It is the way the dancers show they have a lot of money"".

Despite the criticism that is begin­ning to arise regarding, for some people, the commercialisation of the festival, like any cultural fea­ture it is inevitable that the event will evolve and change over time. While it may not be the small religious celebration it once was, it is still an opportunity to celebrate the coming together of the different cultures in Bolivia.

^  The view from our penthouse window

Right, I have a bit of time now, so should be able to fill you in on the essentials!

As a general rule, everything here is pretty relaxed! The most common word in Bolivia seems to be ‘mañana’! I was delighted to get picked up from the airport by a taxi driver who only spoke Spanish, that was quite fun! The drive down from El Alto was amaaaazing, looking at the view over La Paz with all the lights on and everything. We got here and a fellow intern let me into the flat to crash gratefully on a bed for a couple of hours. There were various complications for the transport of other people – delayed planes etc, so basically the travel is all pretty hectic, but it’s a great feeling of satisfaction to arrive in mostly one piece (even if your luggage doesn’t :P)!

Anyhoo yesterday this nice guy who has been here a month took me and Kirsty (arrived when I did) to the supermarket – locating food was very comforting indeed. Us interns have been chatting and we all want to sightsee absolutely everything in Bolivia, so I may well be going to some awesome places - Lake Titicaca, Tiwanaku (ruins), salt plains and stuff like that. Some want to cycle down Death Road, do horse back riding and mountaineering too – in spite of the name, I am considering Death Road as they have PROMISED to ram the brakes on and crawl the whole way! I don´t want to be a big scaredy cat girl though, it’s just activities with death statistics always worry me a little :P We also went to the touristy market yesterday - my God is it hilly, and made worse by the altiitude!! Expect me to come back with lots of llama-based woolly items :P

A few of us went out for a drink in a bar in the evening, which was good for getting to know everyone :) We´ve got a couple of French girls, one from Singapore, a guy from Matlock (cross the Atlantic to meet someone just up the road, hilarious!), Kirsty is from Essex and studies at Southampton – it’s a great mix and all are really friendly ☺ We speak English together mostly, but a lot of Spanish when we´re out and about, which is good practice. The bar was awesome too, it had a log fire in it and scrap metal as decoration, and was blissfully cheap! As is everything really :)

As to work and stuff, again pretty relaxed, although everything manages to get done on time. We had a meeting in the flat, and basically we were told to get an idea, research the idea and write it up! We can ask for contacts and stuff, so that’s really helpful. We get our first journalism lesson on Friday, and Spanish lessons soon too which I’m really looking forward to as we’ll get to learn all the interesting little differences between South American Spanish and peninsular Spanish ☺

Wow, that’s a lot to write for having been in the country less than 24 hours!! That gives you a feel for what it´s like here anyway. Hope all´s well back home :) Oh yeh, last point - the kitty cats here are gorgeous, and drop almost as much fur as ours! But not quite :D :D Ciao, hasta luego!